


Isabela from Zevran to Aveline

by syrenpan



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age II
Genre: Character Exploration Alphabet Meme, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-10
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 07:48:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 6,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrenpan/pseuds/syrenpan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Combination-NC started the wonderful character exploration alphabet meme on tumblr. This is my contribution: Isabela from Zevran to Aveline.</p><p>All done now and truly complete. </p><p>Some of the letters are in the same DA2 reality some are not. E.g. Bethany and Carver feature here which is technically impossible. I leave it up to the reader to put the pieces together whichever way they want.</p><p>Some chapters are very sad and might be upsetting - please read responsibly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Z is for Zevran

**Author's Note:**

> Dragon Age (c) Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.

‘My dearest Isabela, of all my assignment, and I assure you there have been many, this was without a doubt one of the most pleasurable. In fact it may even have made the top five, certainly the top ten.’

‘Oh, you know me, I like being on top.’ Isabela smiled, briefly lifting her gaze from the map on the ageing wood in the captain’s cabin, her cabin. Five years she had been waiting for this moment, five years too many but they were in the past and this, this was her future.

The Crow flashed even white teeth of his own but like all of his kind, the smile didn’t quite reach the eyes which was a little sad given that they were so very pretty. She had had better but Zevran would always have a special place – in her bed.

‘Until we meet again, as friends I hope. Take care, Isabela.’ The elf said and was almost out of the door when she spoke up again.

‘Zevran, that’s Captain Isabela – even for you.’

This time the smile did reach his eyes before he disappeared out of the door, and that’s how she would remember him: the elven assassin who had given her a new life.


	2. Y is for Yearning

She stands on the quay, her eyes scanning the horizon.

It starts as a tiny speck, hard to see at first in front of the spectacle that is the rising sun. She has to squint until she can focus on it again. There is no mistaking this shape for anything else.

A tall ship with billowing sails headed her way. Fully rigged, three-masted, 26 sails. _The Pride of Antiva_. Completely unfit as a pirate’s vessel of course but it’s the sentiment the sight invokes that makes Isabela’s heart ache.

She closes her eyes and for a second she can feel the salty wind in her hair, the moving planks under her feet and the well-loved wood of the rudder caressing her calloused palms.

The moment slips away and she smiles sadly because this is just another beauty that she will have to admire from afar as she passes her by.


	3. X is for Xenon

‘Ahhh, cusssstomerrr.’ Our favourite proprietor wheezed as I sauntered into the Black Emporium. ‘Welcome… to the…’

‘I’m here to return an item.’ I interjected, hoping to cut this visit short. You know him well enough, otherwise it could take all day if I had to wait for Xenon to hiss and moan through his sales pitch and thinly veiled threats.

‘No refunds.’ He replied surprisingly sharp.

‘But it’s defective.’ I said in my most reasonable business voice.

‘No refunds.’ Xenon repeated as if I hadn’t heard him the first time.

‘Now listen, you sold me junk. This,’ I waved the vial, you know the one, in front of him before I tossed it into the vicinity of his lap, ‘is junk. Three hours minimum? He didn’t even last three minutes.’

‘Thaddeus.’ Xenon called but I wasn’t having any of that so I stepped closer.

‘There is no need to be rude. I just think that a fine and renowned establishment such as the Black Emporium would live up to and value its reputation.’ I felt quite proud of myself until…

It was as if all air had been sucked out of me. You know how it seems that his eye-sockets are empty? I swear that blackness pinned me as firmly in place as a pair of onyx daggers.

‘Thaddeus, take Urchinnn and guaaard the doooor. We are clooosed for the aaafternooon.’

A cold shiver ran up and down my spine but I couldn’t run, couldn’t shout only stare at him as Xenon held the vial in a surprisingly steady, crusty hand.

‘Thisss is not… junk.’

*~*

‘And?’ Varric asked completely transfixed by the sheer possibilities.

Merrill held her breath and even Hawke was frozen in place, half-raised mug forgotten in his hand.

‘And she is having you on, you gullible fools!’ Fenris chuckled, not even bothering to look up from his book.

The collective groan of disappointment was almost drowned out by Isabela’s laughter.


	4. W is for Wardens

‘So you’re a Grey Warden?’ Isabela asked Anders out of the blue on a fine morning on the slopes of Sundermount. No one had slept particularly well the previous night when a storm had forced them all to huddle together in a makeshift lean-to.

Under different circumstances Isabela would have enjoyed herself but not after three days of fighting spiders and undead, stomping through the countryside and no bath.

The sunshine playing through the leaves just seemed to add insult to injury and they were all a little cranky. It was time to lighten the mood.

‘The taint isn’t something you can swap like your smalls but other than that no, not really, why do you ask?’ Anders replied clearly annoyed like he always was when someone picked at that sore spot of his past. It was a bit hard to keep track of them all, he had so many.

But that’s what made this fun.

‘Such a shame you weren’t a Warden yet when I met you at the Pearl.’ Isabela remarked idly and pretended to study her nails as she fell in step next to him.

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Anders’ eye-brow twitch. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Oh, you know. Alistair, that’s King Alistair now.’

Anders interrupted her with, ‘Yes, I know. We’ve met.’

‘Anyway,’ Isabela continued, ‘he certainly lived up to the reputation of the Grey Warden stamina.’ She made a show of purring the last word into the mage’s ear.

He swatted her like a noisy fly but the rogue easily avoided him before she closed in again.

‘He could go all night.’ Isabela counted backward from five under her breath and…nothing. Not even a twitchy eye-brow, or gnashing of teeth. She so loved to watch Anders’ impressive jaw work when he tried to reign in his anger but no, nothing. No reaction whatsoever.

The pirate stopped walking and gave Anders’ back a puzzled frown. ‘You’re no fun, you know that!’ She huffed unhappily until the mage stopped in his track, turned and strut back toward her with a creased brow and his mouth set in a grim line.

‘I knew you… oooohhh…’

The second Anders’ fingers touched her cheek, seemingly pouring bliss into her very being, Isabela tipped her head back and moaned. Her knees buckled and she unceremoniously plunked onto the wet ground.

‘You were saying?’ Anders asked with a deadpan expression that would give Fenris a run for his money.

It wasn’t what she had been looking for but, Andraste’s tits, she would take it. ‘Nothing, Sweet Thing, nothing whatsoever.’

And the day had just gotten a bit brighter.


	5. V is for Varric

Isabela chuckled as she watched the blonde head rest on the table top. The steady heaving of the dwarf’s broad back reminded her of a deck at sea and she sighed as she idly toyed with the coin she had won playing cards with the boys earlier.

Hawke and Anders had disappeared first. The healer was just a lost cause when it came to Wicked Grace but she had to give him credit for showing up anyway, giving his rebellion a rest and letting his hair down, sometimes literally. However he always left before he could get more than a little tipsy and predictably Hawke offered to accompany him home every time. They were so obvious and cute, it was giving her cavities.

Fenris excused himself shortly thereafter. The lanky elf was charming with his dry sense of humour and surprisingly filthy mind that he let her catch glimpses off once in a while. And it all came wrapped up in a delicious seemingly unattainable package, Isabela so loved to dance with him, metaphorically speaking. She would have him come time but it was the game that excited her most and it was still too much fun at this stage.

However of all her male companions, it was Varric who had captured her heart. To him she wasn’t the pirate hag, or the buxom slattern, or the captain, or any other disguise or role she would put on or act out for anyone else. When she was with him she could simply be Isabela, or Rivaini as he liked to call her. A kindred spirit. A mate. A friend. Isabela had had many lovers but people she’d call friend she could count on one hand with fingers to spare.

Of all the treasure she had ever dreamed of finding, she’d never thought that the most previous one would be a beardless dwarf with a gorgeous crossbow, magnificent chest hair and the most beautiful mind she’d ever seen.

Chiding herself for her besotted musing, she got up from her chair and stepped around the table to contradict her own thoughts by carefully draping an old blanket over Varric’s back and planting a tiny kiss on his temple.

She didn’t see how her friend smiled happily in his sleep as she walked out of the room.


	6. U is for Unmentionables

‘Oh, so you _do_ wear knickers after all,’ Hawke grinned up at her from further down the ladder. Isabela just snorted and kept climbing until she reached the top.

‘That’s right. Need to give them something to unwrap, like a gift.’ The pirate replied, hands on her hips waiting for Hawke to catch up with her. ‘There is nothing quite like it. That feeling of hands, eager and warm. Thumbs hooking under the sides, slowly sliding them over my thighs, down my legs before they throw them against the wall with a flourish, crawling back up, placing love bites on the way until they reach what they’ve been thinking about every single second ever since that first kiss.’

‘Mmmh, if I were into women that would have been really, really hot.’ Hawke said with a lazy grin as he straightened up.

‘Just pretend it’s Anders,’ she watched as Hawke’s eyes lost all focus, and snickered. ‘You are too easy, Sweetheart.’

Hawke’s grin turned into a smirk. ‘Well, at least now another great mystery of Kirkwall has been solved.’

‘Why, did you guys sit around the camp fire and placed bets whether I go commando?’ Isabela asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘Perish the thought,’ Hawke replied with a fake wounded expression on his face. ‘We were at the Hanged Man.’

Isabela laughed.


	7. T is for Truth

'What's wrong with him? If we were at sea, I would say a storm is coming.' Isabela asked Varric while she shuffled the cards. Hawke had walked into the room announced that he wasn't in the mood for cards and had stomped out again.

'I heard a little bird sing that Blondie and Hawke had an argument,' Varric whispered despite the fact that they were alone in the room.

'Oh, but they are fighting all the time,' Isabela shrugged.

'The words ' _this is not working any more_ ' might have been uttered,' Varric explained.

Isabela pondered the news for some moments before she shoved her chair away form the table and said, 'I think Hawk might need a bosom to cry on.'

'I don't know, Rivaini, you remember that bosoms aren't exactly his thing, right?'

She gave Varric a seductive smile and said, 'He sure as hell likes to look and accidentally walk into mine for someone who doesn't like them.'

'I thought he was just clumsy,' Varric said weakly.

Isabela smirked, 'I think it's time for Hawke to come out of the closet. I'm just going to give him a helping... hand.'


	8. S is for Sex

Isabela loved sex and believed that if people could only stop moralising so hard, it would be the tool to unify all nations and beings.

Men, women, elves, dwarves, Qunari, everyone in between any of these states of existence, they all had to do it in order to keep going, or did it just because it was relaxing, messy fun. So it wasn't like she was trying to introduce a new and abstract concept to society at large. Everyone knew it and almost everyone did it. That's a time saving then and there.

She shared her theory with Hawke who burst out laughing but eventually agreed that the thought had some merit.

'If people stopped thinking and did more fucking the world would be a happier place.'

'Well, I don't know about the world but there is a happier man right here, right now,' Hawke said as he pushed inside her again.

Isabela moaned and laughed at the same time. 'I'm so... so glad... you are coming around to my way of thinking.'

'Yes, _coming_ is the important word here,' Hawke panted back.

'Definitely,' Isabela agreed.


	9. R is for Row

'So you and Hawke?' Anders had sidled up to her on their way to the Bone Pit. 

Isabela sighed, she knew this would happen sooner or later but the internal optimist in her had hoped for not at all. 

'You are one to talk,' Isabela said and hated how defensive she sounded.

'Excuse me?' Anders asked, hovering between bewilderment and annoyance.

'Denerim. The Pearl,' Isabela reminded him. Not that there was much to remember, it had been a busy night, and if it hadn't been for Anders' electricity trick, she would not have been able to pick him out of a crowd.

'Oh,' Anders said, jealous anger somewhat deflated. He cleared his throat and said, 'It's just that Hawke told me that he had never felt any interest in women before.'

Isabela rolled her eyes. 'Yes, because only people attracted to the same sex deny their urges to conform with society's expectations.' 

Anders stopped walking and stared at her. 

'What? Oh, because I'm a pirate and a woman raised outside of your precious Chantry, I can't read books? Have you got any more prejudice coming my way, because if so I might ask for a break to sit down, don't want to slip on your bullshit after all. I might break a nail.' Isabela said sarcastically. 

'You don't need to be such a bitch about it,' Anders hissed. 'I had information that led me to believe Hawke was only interested in men. So excuse me when new evidence to the contrary gives me pause.'

'He still likes cock just the same if that's what you're concerned about, just not yours!' Isabela shrugged and walked faster but Anders kept pace. 

'What else do you want?' She asked angrily.

'I want you to know that if you are going to hurt him, don't come running to me next time you have an itch down there.' 

'Any itch I might get, he would have most certainly gotten from you,' Isabela spat back. 

'You fu...'

'What's going on back here?' Hawke asked, clearly regretting that he had brought his ex- and current lover along on this trip. 

'Nothing,' Isabela and Anders said in unison. 'Nothing at all.'


	10. Q is for Questions

'Why did you come back?' Hawke asked when they were alone again.

Isabela avoided his eyes and instead of giving an answer, walked straight into his bedroom.

'Isabela!' Hawke called as he followed her.

'Why are you asking me? I told you already.' Her tone sounded angry but it wasn't Hawke she was angry with. Stupid, foolish heart! She could be half-way to Llomerryn by now. She walked to the small table, poured herself a cup of Antivan Red and downed it in one go. 

Hawke stood in front of her, arms crossed over his chest. 'Why did you really come back?' 

'Because...'

'Because she would have missed this too much.' Fenris suddenly appeared in the doorway, walked straight to Hawke, fisted a handful of black locks and pulled him down for a kiss. 

Isabela slammed the cup onto the table. The two men stopped and looked at her. 

'Am I correct?' Fenris asked. A rhetorical question because he knew full well that Isabela had become invested into their little threesome and was not prepared to give it up quite yet. 

'Stop asking stupid questions and let's go to bed.'


	11. P is for Personal

'Hey, what's your name love?' 

Isabela ignored the ashen-haired mercenary who had taken the stool next to her at the bar. 

'Hey, love, are you deaf? What's your name?' 

'I'm not looking for company,' Isabela replied shortly and turned her back on him. 

'Then you shouldn't have brought the girls along for all to see, whore.' The disgusting piece of trash drawled and dared to lay his dirty hand on her shoulder to force her to turn around again. 

With a quick step Isabela pirouetted around him, drawing her blade and holding it against the scumbag's throat. 

'Here is how this will go. You drop your coin on the bar and make straight for the door. You walk through and keep going until you see the city lights of Ostwick. Because if I see your ugly mug one more time, I will cut off your balls and stuff them down your throat. Nod, gently, if you understand.' 

The mercenary shook his head in agreement, a bit more vigorously than was wise under the circumstances, but he did as he was told. When he was gone, Isabela picked up the fat leather pouch. Good pickings, she decided.

'Problem?' Hawke asked casually as he walked over to help Isabela get a new round for everyone. 

'Just an asshole asking personal questions and not taking no for an answer but I like to think he saw the error of his ways. Drinks are on him!' Isabela jiggled the coins in front of Hawke's eyes. 

'Hooray for assholes!'


	12. O is for Once

'Bethany? Is something the matter, sweetness?' 

The younger Hawke had never come up to her room before, and her brother would most certainly not approve. Isabela could practically hear him say, 'You never know who you might walk in on when you open that door.' 

'I... let me close the door.' Bethany stammered as she fumbled with the latch. 

'Okay, I'm getting worried. Come sit down here,' Isabela gestured to the end of her bed. She quickly moved her daggers and sharpening stone out of the way. 

'So, what is this about? Makers breath, have you been drinking? Your brother is going to kill me.' 

'It was one cup and you didn't even buy it for me. I'm not a child!' Bethany said defensively. 

Isabela bit her tongue and instead of taunting the young woman like she would have normally done, decided it was best to get to the bottom of this. 'All right. Why don't you tell me why you're hear?'

'I want you to kiss me.'

Isabela's eyebrows rose. She had not seen this one coming. Bethany was looking at her with shiny eyes but Isabela saw he confidence drain away with each passing second. 

'This was a stupid idea. I'm sorry...' Bethany began but Isabela gently laid a fingers on the younger woman's lips. 

'Is this your first kiss?' Isabela asked as she took her hand from Bethany’s mouth and gently stroked the dark locks. 

Bethany nodded but the determination was back in her eyes. 'I want to know what it's like and I trust you.' 

Instead of making a flippant comment about Bethany's terrible lack of common sense, Isabela leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to the younger woman's. 

Bethany made a surprised sound in the back of her throat. Isabela kept stroking her hair and licked along the younger Hawke's lips. Bethany opened her mouth and let the pirate taste her. 

The younger woman made a tiny disappointed sound when Isabela finally pulled back. 

'Well?' The pirate asked, wondering whether Garrett Hawke was going to kill her for this.

As if the thought had conjured him, the door slammed open and Hawke strode into the room. 

'There you are! Come along, mother is waiting. She is still not happy you are coming with me tomorrow and wants us to have a last family dinner. I don't want to be late she is angry with me as it is. … what were you doing in here?' Hawke's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Isabela looked him straight into the yes and replied, 'Girl talk. Did that answer your question, Bethany?' 

Bethany smiled as she got up and said, 'Yes, it really has. Maybe we can talk again some other time?' 

'I would love to,' Isabela replied.


	13. N is for Naishe

'Mother?' The word sounded foreign coming out of her mouth. 

She knelt by the old woman lying on a straw mattress on the floor in a corner of the building that was bare except for the sleeping spaces. Nothing that marked this as a place where people actually lived. Isabela had seen prisons with more personal touches than this house.

Hari opened her eyes, milky white irises stared into nothing. 'Naishe? Is that you?' 

Naishe. She hadn't been Naishe for a very long time. 'Naishe is dead. You gave her away, don't you remember, Hari?' Isabela said coldly.

The old woman sat up, grimacing as if every movement caused her considerable pain. When she finally managed to sit on the edge of the mattress, her dirty bare feet resting on the cold floor, she said, 'Hari is no more. She accepted the Enlightenment of the Qun, don't you remember?' 

Neither woman said anything for a long time before the older one spoke again. 'Why did you come? Not to find purpose under the Qun that much I do know.' 

Isabela clicked her tongue and replied, 'Why did you sell me?'

Hari's eyes followed the sound of Isabela's voice, 'I had found my place under the Qun. The Tamassran gave me a choice. I was to convert you, or the Qamek would do it for me. I chose a third option.' 

Isabela gasped in disbelief. 'Are you seriously trying to tell me that you protected me? Didn't it strike you as somehow wrong that your Qun would have happily turned me into a mindless drone? How could you choose to follow something so... so...' 

Hari's hand, twisted with arthritis, reached out in the dark. Isabela hesitated for a moment before she took it in her own calloused one. 'Go back to wherever you came from, Naishe. There is nothing for you here.' 

'I hate you,' Isabela hissed quietly. 'Do you hear me? I hate you. You were supposed to love me.' 

The old woman gently squeezed Isabela's hand although even that seemed to cause her pain, and said again, 'Go back, child. You said your bit, and I heard you. If that what you needed I am glad I could at least do that for you.' 

'No,' Isabela said quietly. 'No, I didn't come to talk at all.' 

The silence stretched between them before Hari finally took her hand back and said, 'Ah. It will not give you the peace you are looking for but if that is your wish, I am ready. Maybe this was meant to be. Asit tal-eb.'

Isabela stared at the impassive face of the woman who used to be her mother, a thief and a trickster, and now nothing but a crippled, blind fanatic, still clinging to a philosophy that had twisted her mind and eventually her body. 

'No, killing you would be a kindness. And I don't find it in my heart to be kind to you. You were right, Hari died when she embraced the Qun. I came to find my mother and only met a ghost.' 

Without another word Isabela fled into the night. She did not know that Hari did not live to feel the rising sun warming her skin.

From time to time, Isabela would revisit this night in her head and each time when she remembered Hari telling her that she had sold her to protect her from the very thing that she had chosen for her own life, Isabela would break something in anger and frustration. 

Isabela didn't understand much about love but she was certain mother love was not supposed to hurt this much.


	14. M is for Mother

It has been a long time since she has thought about Hari. But ever since Seheron, she wakes up, soaked in sweat, calling her mother's name. 

Hari who sold her to the highest bidder because she refused to convert to the Qun. Isabela untangles herself form the sheets and pours herself some red wine. 

It's just as well that she sleeps alone these days. No-one to badger her with awkward questions that she would refuse to answer anyway. 

She briefly thinks about Hawke and Fenris, even Carver. But that way madness lies. She knows that she can't go back. Their time has come and gone. 

No regrets – that was the promise she made herself. 'I will not regret anything!'

She briefly considers going back into her bunk but decides against it. She dresses and steps outside into the cold air under a moonless sky. 

'Captain,' her First Mate greets her. 

'Corall,' Isabela replies and fleetingly thinks that she has made the right choice by recruiting the Llomerryn-born woman as her right hand on deck. 

Isabela leans over the starboard side and stares at the “Voyager” constellation. “Across the sea” is a more accurate translation of the Tevene. Across the sea where Par Vollen lies. Where Hari toils the fields until the day she dies, until the day her body will be shoved into one of the mass graves because Qunari have no funeral rites. The body holds no significance for them. 

'No one will mourn you,' Isabela tells the stars. 'Every day you work from dusk till dawn and in the end someone will simply step forward to take your place in the field. Where is the glory in that?'

Isabela pictures Hari in her mind: grey, bend, broken, tired but with a content little smile on her face as if she is listening to a joke that only she can hear. Beady eyes that see nothing, but still that smile remains even as she clutches her chest and falls over. Two other workers step out of the mass and drag her body to the fresh pit that some other labourer dug only this morning. 

'Damn you,' Isabela says and hammers her fist into the wood. 'Damn you.' 

She turns and calls, 'Corall, turn her around.' 

'Where to, Captain?' 

'We are going north.' 

'Aye aye, Ma'm.'


	15. L is for Love

Isabela loves duels and daggers. She loves ships and the sea. She loves drinking and fucking.

But she doesn't _love_ love. Some people would say that she just hadn't met the right person yet. Some people could go fuck themselves.

Everyone in her life who was supposed to love her betrayed her, sold her, abandoned her, treated her like a thing.

Love has never been kind to her. So when Hawke tells her again that he loves her, she does the only thing she can to protect herself.

'Which way, captain?' The First Mate asks.

'Second star in the Chained Man to the right, and straight on till morning.'


	16. K is for Kitten

Hawke calls her Merrill. Varric calls her Daisy. Fenris and Anders call her dangerous. 

To me, she is Kitten.

Playful, innocent and constantly getting into trouble because she is curious about everything.  
I follow her in the shadows around town, shaking my head and hiding my laughter behind my hand. 

How can one person be so shrewd and so naïve at the same time? 

The question is, do I teach the kitten how to use her claws? I know she wants me to, she has said as much. 

No, I think, I want to watch her be a kitten just a little while longer.


	17. J is for Jaded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Please don't read this chapter if you're depressed.

She has seen it all, done it all and lived to tell the tale, the curse of the seas, the notorious Pirate Queen Isabela.

Her flagship, the Bethany, anchors in the fog off Llomerryn. 

A young spy is kneeling in front of her, hands tied with rope behind his back. He pretends to be brave but his eyes are giving him away, blue eyes like the sky before dawn. His blonde curls are damp with sweat, and he stinks like the wet dog he is. 

'Who sent you?' She asks calmly. It's not the patience of a skilled interrogator but the lack of interest in the answer really. There is one every week these days, and she only bothers to talk to the pretty ones.

The man presses his lips together and manages the courage to look into her eyes. For a few seconds, she is almost impressed.

She knows she is still beautiful although she dyes her hair with henna and has to spend a good half an hour plucking the hairs out of her chin every morning. The corset is working a bit harder these days but she hasn't changed all that much in the past twenty years. Ever since she has left that cursed city on the Free Marches' coast and became an admiral of the Felicisima Armada. 

Her fame and tenacity bought her many loyal followers, and eventually, she crowned herself queen. A queen who more often than not sleeps with a dagger in her bed than with a warm body. It's not for want of offers but even sex has lost it's charm. 

Eventually, the spy breaks down and confesses, tells her everything. It's the same old thing as if they are players in an old play that everyone has seen a thousand times over. 

Now it's her turn. She offers him to join her side, or walk the plank. 

These days she doesn't even watch any more. She hears the scream and the splash followed by the cheering of her men. 

One out of three choose death over her. Not long now and they will all prefer the salty grave. 

And one day, not long now, she will join them.


	18. I is for Indulgence

Fenris is not complicated. Despite the fact that he has so many sore spots when you are trying to have a normal conversation with him, he is remarkably easy and to the point when it comes to fucking. 

Not flirting. He doesn't do flirting. His idea of romance is, 'Your place or mine, or shall we go about it in that shady ally over there?'

Yes, Fenris is very relaxing to be around when your goal is to get off. He is just as interested in Isabela having a good time as he is in his own pleasure. A very thorough lover and open to experimentation. When Isabela suggests they should try to include Hawke, Fenris eyes light up hungrily. Hawke fucking Fenris while he is eating her out – oh, such a pretty idea! 

But for now, just the two of them will have to make do until they can talk their friend into it.

Later, when they are dozing in Fenris' bed, Isabela strokes the white locks and marvels at her luck. All the good stuff without the messy feelings. She knows he will never ask her for anything she doesn't want to give and vice versa.

Only sometimes she indulgences in a fantasy where she fights to become the pirate queen. And her first mate and lover rips out the heart of all who dare stand in her way.


	19. H is for Hawke

Isabela doesn't do love. Too complicated, too messy, too possessive, a bit like Hawke himself.

She would have to end it soon which was a shame really. Hawke knew exactly how to use his height and all those muscles to his advantage, and she almost got him to agree to the threesome with Fenris she has been dreaming off and working on for months now.

She idly twiddled the little bottle with the model ship inside in her hands. It was crudely made, one mast already broken, the bottle itself stained from exposure to a fireball.

_His hands on her hips, supporting her as he thrusts harder into her wet heat. 'I love you!'_

If she could only pretend it was the fucking and not the whispered words that had made her come, all would be fine.

Isabela throws the bottle onto the bed and presses a pillow over her face, and screams.

The door opens and Hawke steps into her room. 'What are you doing?'

'Nothing,' she says hastily and throws the pillow into his face.

'Ouch,' he says with fake hurt, 'what have I done now?'

Isabela laughs and reaches for him. 'Nothing, sweet thing. Come here.'

Hawke obliges with a happy grin, already tugging off his armour before he even reaches the bed. He crawls over her, covering her with his large frame and leans down for a passionate kiss.

Maybe she could cope with the increasing puppy dog eyes and awkward tokens of affection for little while longer.


	20. G is for Gull

Sometimes Isabela gets up before dawn and walks down to the quay to watch the sunrise. She never tells anyone, and doesn't want any of her friends to know because they might want to come along. 

She doesn't think of it as selfish rather than something that she needs to do alone. Sebastian goes to the Chantry, Hawke to his mother's grave, and Isabela watches the sun kiss the horizon. 

It's her ritual, the sky is her cathedral and the screaming of the gulls her choir, reminding her that she has a soul after all.


	21. F is for Freedom

Too many fools in this world consider themselves free and don't realise they live their whole life in a cage: some golden, some imaginary, some made of iron and some made of emotions – but they are all real. Obligations, shackles and sweet lies bind a being as sure as metal bars. 

Only very few get to find the key, turn it and for the first time, breathe the bitter sweet air, unfiltered and unprotected. 

The privilege is hard won and hard-lived. Not every mind can stand to be free. It takes a pirate to appreciate true freedom. 

Isabela laughs as she throws herself into the waves, ready to battle the sea of life.


	22. E is for Enchantment

Isabela walks into Hawke's mansion and sprawls across the large and excessively comfortable chair in front of the fire place. She pulls off her boots, closes her eyes and smiles.

'Ah, it's good to have rich friends with benefits,' she sighs, listening to the wood breaking up in the heat, and thinking about what she wants to do with her sometimes lover tonight.

Isabela screams in surprise when she opens her eyes because Sandal is right _there_ in front of her face and she didn't even hear or feel him coming.

'Don't do that again if you value your life,' she growls sternly, more flustered than anything that he managed to sneak up on her. Sandal just continues to stare until she snaps, 'Well, what do you want?'

'Enchantment,' Sandal says reverently and presses a faintly glowing rune into her hand, smiles awkwardly and disappears to Maker knows where.

Isabela eyes the rune suspiciously. It hums with power, even in her untrained hands.

'Thank you,' she calls softly into the emptiness of the room and makes a mental note not to fall asleep in Hawke's mansion ever again.


	23. D is for Drink

'Another round,' Isabela shouts as she waves to get Corff's attention, rattling the table and toppling half empty tankards in the process.

'I think you have had enough,' Fenris remarks as he shifts quickly to avoid getting soaked in stale ale. 

'Pfff. Shin...Since when are you my mother?' Isabela asks and wonders, 'Hey, you have a twin!?'

'Oh Maker, someone better take you to bed,' Merrill says earnestly. 

'Oh, yes please,' Isabela smiles lopsidedly and falls forward out of her chair when she grossly misjudges the distance between herself and her “kitten”.

'I'll take care of that,' Fenris volunteers and easily picks her off the ground. 

'Oh, can I guess the colour of your underwear again?' Isabela asks gleefully as she throws her arms around the warriors' neck. 

'Another time perhaps,' Fenris smiles as he carries her up the stairs. Isabela is already asleep with a smile on her lips.


	24. C is for Carver

She is riding him like she has always wanted to. He is caressing her tits and bucks into her thrust, powerful and excellently timed.

' _This is not the first time he is doing is_ ,' she thinks and grinds down harder.

' _Who? Who was she? Who was the first one to see you like this?_ ' Isabela is surprised at herself even as she encourages him to shift. He slips out of her as he sits up, hands around her hips, she takes him in hand and guides him back inside.

He kisses her greedily, drunkenly as they find their rhythm again.

 _'Who taught you? Who took what should have been mine?'_ She gasps and moans his name, but whether it's because of the surprisingly jealous thought or his clever hand in between their bodies, bringing her to ecstasy, even Isabela wouldn't be able to say.


	25. B is for Bethany

Apostate, tainted creature, Grey Warden. Sweet innocence destroyed because she was loyal to her brother.

  
Isabela drinks and tries not to remember the ebony hair and ruby lips that could smile brighter than the sun. Hawke would have killed her before she would have gotten the chance to show her all six, but what a way to go.

  
' _Yes, what a way to go,'_ the pirate thinks as she calls for the next round and pretends it's the smoke from the fire stinging her eyes.


	26. A is for Aveline

The Big Girl is shouting at the recruits, making the poor sods bend backwards to escape her wrath. Isabela could give them some tips. The most important thing is not to care that the red-head cares so much, cares about everyone and too little about herself. Idealistic, overprotective fool that she is. 

Isabela stays in the shadows and smiles. When she is not on the receiving end, Aveline's fire is a pleasant warmth against the chilling cold that has come over Kirkwall.


End file.
